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All Things Home

a slice of life

creamy potato soup | simple weeknight meal

Both Jeff and I are big soup fans. I discovered my love of soups when our family went on winter retreats to Beatenberg, Switzerland and they would serve the most delicious pureed soups with dinner every night. (This sounds fancy, but I grew up in Germany when my dad was stationed there in the military.) Now that we’re in the thick of winter and I’m working on eating healthier, soup makes a great dinner as well as leftovers for lunches and busy evenings. We’ve been pairing it with a salad, skipping the crackers and bread. Here’s how I make grab & go salad jars for easy weeknights. One of our favorites (and Marshall loves it, too) is this creamy potato soup.  I found the basic recipe in the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook (the red checkered one), but we all found it to be a bit bland, so I added

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All Things Home

non-sponsored follow-up Sleep Number bed review

In December of 2017, I received a Sleep Number bed as a part of a blog sponsorship and I shared an initial review of it (as a part of that sponsorship) in April of 2018.  You can find that post HERE if you’re interested. I am sometimes asked about products I receive through sponsorships and if I still use them or love them.  Would I buy the product as a regular customer?  Would I still give it a thumbs up even if I’m not being paid? We’ve been sleeping in the Sleep Number bed for just over a year, so I thought it would be a good time to write a non-sponsored follow-up for those who might be curious about it. In summary, I can tell you that we’re still loving the bed.  It addressed the major issue we had of being on total opposite ends of the spectrum when

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All Things Home

bathroom organizing & cleaning make-up brushes

Just like everyone else in the world, January has me itching to get organized.  I am a driven person and that can be a positive thing when it comes to a to-do list, but it can also be a detriment when faced with an entire house to organize and purge.  I want to get it all done all at one time, which just isn’t possible unless I neglect everything else in my life for a week.  So, I’m reigning in that desire and am forcing myself to tackle the house in bite-sized tasks.  When I was sick last week, it was just one drawer in a day.  When I was feeling better, it was one closet or a grouping of drawers. In general, this is a good way to approach organizing, so it’s not overwhelming and you can fit it in around the rest of your life (that doesn’t come

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a slice of life

favorite home projects of 2018

As I’ve been looking back over the past year and the projects we completed, I realized we have done a lot!  2017 was about getting settled, listening to our house, getting to know its style, and learning the way it functioned best.  It was also about tackling the immediate issues, like an aging water heater, broken garage doors, and turning the sunroom into a finished studio. This year has been about making the homes ours…or at least parts of it!  Even working at a pretty good pace, we’re not going to get the entire house done in a year.  We focused primarily on the main floor since that’s where we spend most of our time. Here are my favorite projects we completed in 2018… Installing Hardwood Floors I knew I wanted to do this before we even bought the house.  There was 13-year-old, beige wall-to-wall carpet in the dining room

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All Things Home

two cents on tidying up

I’m going to say right off the bat that I have never read Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  I read some reviews on it and a summary of it a few years ago and felt like I got the gist.  The concept of keeping only what you love (or what “sparks joy”) isn’t a new one, so I didn’t purchase the book. I have, though, started watching the new series on Netflix, Tidying Up and decided to throw in my two cents on it. First of all, Marie is so endearing.  She is kind and never shows a judgemental face when she’s nose-to-nose with mountains of stuff.  She is gracious to her clients and that’s heart-warming to watch, especially in an age where nasty judges and show hosts have a high entertainment value. I also like how the guests on the show are very realistic and

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All Things Home

evolving workspaces

I find that my workspaces are the trickiest when it comes to arranging and decorating, simply because they have to evolve as my work evolves.  I’ve been using my studio and home office for a year and a half now and I’m learning what works and what doesn’t.  I’ve made a few changes and additions that have really helped, but there are still some needs that haven’t been addressed. In my office, I need more storage, a larger work surface, and proper file drawers.  In my studio, I need more storage, a flat work surface, and a place to store wet paintings while they are drying. In both rooms, I have some nice storage pieces, but neither space has a closet, so bulkier items that should be in those rooms are stored elsewhere in the house.  As someone who likes to keep things in the room where they belong, I find

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All Things Home

customizing floor grates

Well, I’m starting off my first full work week of the new year sick in bed!  I am itching to organize and get to work on some of the plans I drew up over the holidays, but those will all have to wait…hopefully for just a day or two.  Until I’m back on my feet and working on projects again, I am sharing a project I worked on before Christmas. When the slate floors were installed and finished, the white floor vents stood out much more than they did on the beige tile… I originally looked into replacing them with ones that were more decorative, but I had difficulty finding the size I needed and the ones I liked were pretty expensive.  I decided to go the thriftier option and used spray paint to transform the existing vents. I was hoping to find a spray paint that was the same

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All Things Home

top 10 posts of 2018

Happy New Year! I absolutely love the time of year between Christmas and New Years when I hibernate, take time off, and generally loaf around without any deadlines, commitments or expectations beyond wearing pajama-like clothes all day, every day.  We’ve been doing puzzles and science experiments, watching movies, playing board games, letting the boys have playdates and sleepovers.  I had planned on getting a few projects done, but neither Jeff nor I felt like cutting, measuring, or installing anything, which would all have been required.  The house is a bit messy, the snacks have been thoroughly raided, and the Christmas decorations are still up. In the midst of all of the planned downtime, though, I had some rich and productive creative time.  I spent the time I had to myself in my studio writing, painting, studying, drawing plans, taking notes and I can already see and feel the benefits of

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I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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